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May 25, 2018, 08:00am

The Secrets To Changing The World: A Big Vision And Effective Collaboration

President and CEO of Human Vaccines Project, a public-private partnership with the goal of decoding the human immune system.

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Technology is transforming life as we know it, creating a world that’s nearly unrecognizable to past generations. From artificial intelligence (AI) to machine learning and human ingenuity, both commercial and nonprofit organizations are evolving how they work in order to reach the next big discovery. The space race and landing a man on the moon ushered in the computer revolution. The Human Genome Project brought a new era of personalized medicine. The Hubble Space Telescope provided the first glimpses of distant galaxies.

These examples of game-changing advances in science all have two things in common: a big vision and effective collaboration, which are essential components for tackling the complex problems nearly every sector faces today. But in the absence of innovative collaborations, big visions often become buried within silos of ongoing work and disconnected teams.

Regardless of sector, implementing your big vision is possible. Having spent many years in the science nonprofit sector, I have experienced firsthand how merging multidisciplinary efforts can transform concepts into reality. In these cases, the connection of experts from various disciplines and the ability to collaboratively leverage technology have helped advance our missions.

For example, the development of an HIV vaccine is a global public health priority. However, the unprecedented variability of HIV around the world presents a major problem for vaccine developers. It requires that multiple experts across disciplines be brought together to find a realistic starting point to develop a globally effective vaccine.

The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, where I formerly served as the chief scientific officer, recognized this and established a global consortium of cross-disciplinary experts to identify the common vulnerable sites on all strains of the virus. This information is now being leveraged to design new vaccines that are undergoing testing.

In another case, the Human Vaccines Project, where I serve as president and CEO, has a mission to decode the human immune system to help scientists understand how it fights disease. The information will then be used to accelerate the development of better vaccines and immunotherapies that will save millions of lives. Imagine if we could harness the power of the human immune system to not only tackle major infectious pandemics like influenza, but also prevent and control chronic diseases like cancer, allergies, heart disease and potentially even Alzheimer’s.

Until recently, attempting to understand the human immune system was sheer fantasy due to its vast size and complexity. However, technological advances have provided the tools necessary to undertake this unprecedented effort, allowing us to inch closer to transforming the future of human health. We knew we wouldn’t be able to accomplish this alone, so the organization has assembled leading academic research centers, industrial partners, nonprofits and governments to address the primary barriers and work towards a common goal of decoding the immune system.

Deconstructing Effective Collaboration To Change The World

While these two examples are specific to large-scale collaborative efforts in scientific research, I feel they provide important lessons that can be gleaned across all sectors and businesses. Leaders seeking to achieve a big vision and change the world need to put collaboration front and center. Here are five lessons for success in finding the next breakthrough, whether you work in biomedical research or other nonprofit sectors.

Cross-Disciplinary Teams: How can you build teams that will provide the right formula for success? Teams that bring different cultures and perspectives offer opportunities for new thinking. Team members should be selected not only for their technical expertise, but for their communication skills and chemistry with other teammates. Once the team is compiled, the next step is to ensure alignment on the mission and develop a core set of values by which the team is expected to operate in order to increase motivation and the potential for success.

Leadership: How can you focus your organization on a long-term, big-vision goal? Chief executives and multi-disciplinary team leaders need to have a track record of success in their own discipline, as well as proven diplomatic skills and the ability to make hard decisions on milestone-based programs. Leaders must encourage team members to bring new and disruptive ideas, learn from failures, be transparent and embrace change. Leaders should also play a central role in encouraging team bonding and buy-in to the mission -- group volunteer days provide a good opportunity to pursue these objectives.

Incentives: What motivates your teams to go the extra mile? How should incentives vary among different disciplines, departments and backgrounds? Incentives can take many different forms, such as spot bonuses and recognition events. If you develop a team charter or collaborative agreement, you have the opportunity to build an environment where the whole of what can be accomplished is recognized as greater than the sum of the parts. Such agreements enable cross-disciplinary teams to address the often contentious issues of intellectual property, resource allocations (such as space, financial allocation and royalty algorithms) and decision-making.

Transparency: Does every group, department or institution have a representative on the leadership team? How does your organization come to a consensus on key issues? Effective collaboration requires establishing critical guidelines around tough issues from the start. This means a clear and common framework around how collaborations should operate, including, but not limited to, leadership representation, ensuring all stakeholders have access to the same information and regular team meetings.

Checks And Balances: What do your board of directors and external advisory boards look like? Do they keep leaders aligned with tasks and focused on your mission? Establishing external advisory boards that review progress and help prioritize future direction on a regular basis can drive team members to achieve milestones, which provides further incentives for collaboration and the ability to achieve the big vision.

It’s often said that one person can change the world. But in cases where it’s a team effort, collaboration is essential. The ability to successfully implement a big vision requires an innovative and effective collaborative structure, involving cross-sector support and alignment of focus. This offers the greatest potential for success.